The Completely Civil Servant

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

This satirical work is described as “the bible of survival and the key to prospering in the civil service.” It purports to answer the question most often asked by despairing and/or infuriated taxpayers at sea in the system: that is, why do civil servants act the way they do? Probably there is no definitive answer to such a question. But this sidelong look at the changing game of civil service in the 1980s suggests that in a tighter era of programme slashing and deficit reduction, the bureaucrat will have to look very sharp indeed if he or she is to survive — will have to become “a scrooge, a reformer — even an entrepreneur.” Sage advice (who could resist such an invitation to pun?) includes tips on how to get on with or circumvent those in office who will try to nail you in one way or another; classifies the various types of the multifarious breed of bureaucrats (e.g., The Hider, The Meanderthal. The Message Merchant); offers a self-administered test by which the reader may determine whether he/she is civil service material and, supposing the answer is “yes,” how to go about working the system. Very dry vintage, very funny.